Lectio Praecursoria: Social Orders, Tensions and Saviourism: An Ethnography of Finnish Roma Policy Implementation

Abstract

“Social orders, tensions and saviourism” represents an ethnography on the implementation of Finnish national policy on Roma. It draws upon two and half years of fieldwork working in a Roma project. The name of the study, “Social orders, tensions and saviourism,” reflects the core findings of the study. It argues that the neoliberal policy-making applied to Romani people have an ideological premise that is incongruous with their social realities causing tensions among participants and formulating a form of saviourism. Keywords: Finnish Roma, participation, development, policy, neoliberalism, power